


Lullaby

by Trumpeteer34



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AOU spoilers, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, Gen, Lullabies, Minor Spoilers, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Pre-Relationship, Team Dynamics, Touching, developing team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 02:58:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3879592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trumpeteer34/pseuds/Trumpeteer34
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a battle, the team try to calm Hulk down. Natasha has an idea.</p><p>Or: Natasha's touch-therapy is called a "lullaby." The name had to come from somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the named/recognizable characters present. They belong to Marvel. Other recognizable things belong to their respective owners. This was written purely for fun.
> 
> Spoilers are very minor.

“I’m calling it. Good job, guys.”

Natasha let out a breath and looked around at the devastation surrounding her. Thick billows of black smoke rose in columns to the sky and there was still a heavy amount of sparking coming from the destroyed robots littering the battlefield. 

She casually kicked a severed robotic arm out of her way as she stepped across the space to where Clint was zip-lining back down to the ground. Her eyes did a quick scan of his person, searching for damage, but thankfully everything was fairly superficial. 

Clint twisted around once his boots hit solid ground and his eyes did the same once-over of her. “You alright?” he asked, nodding vaguely to the bruise Natasha could feel beginning to swell on her cheekbone. 

“Lucky hit,” she replied with a shrug. Her eyes went skyward as Thor flew overhead and disappeared behind an empty shipping container. 

Steve’s voice came over their communication link again. “Anyone have eyes on Hulk?” he asked.

Clint breathed a curse and glanced longingly upward at where he had been perched for the duration of the battle. “Should’ve stayed up there,” he muttered before he opened his comm link. “Last I saw, he was near the docks, but he could have already—”

He paused when an inhuman roar sounded. The noise echoed through the area, but Natasha was sure that the source was still nearby.

“Oh, good,” Tony’s voice swiftly came. “At least we don’t have to hunt Bruce down this time.”

“Amen,” Clint agreed, and Natasha shared the sentiment. They hadn’t had very many team battles that required all six Avengers to make appearances, but whenever they needed their heavy hitter, Hulk had always managed to get away from them.

Then again…

“That just means we get to try talking Hulk down again,” Steve added on, and the total silence that followed that comment was resounding. Each of their attempts in the past had been complete and total failures, and they had left Hulk to tire himself out until Bruce came back.

The silence was broken by Thor. “I have located our teammate,” he announced. 

“On my way,” Tony said, and Natasha and Clint watched Iron Man zip overhead toward where Thor had flown to. “Maybe you shouldn’t engage the big guy.”

“I am fully capable of calming the beast—”

There was another massive roar that rattled Natasha’s bones followed by an enormous _thud_ of bending metal. A tower of the shipping containers teetered and collapsed.

After exchanging a swift glance, Natasha and Clint took off toward the scene, jumping over the sparking robots and other debris littering the way.

As they were running, more sounds of destruction and deep grunts could be heard. Thor must have freed himself, for his voice began to ring through the air.

“How many times must we explain this?” the Asgardian shouted to be heard over the growls and grunts. “We are not your enemy!”

“Don’t think yelling at the rage machine is helping,” Tony pointed out. 

Clint and Natasha rounded a corner and finally came to the scene. There were jagged ribbons of metal everywhere, ripped straight from the sides of shipping containers and robots alike. There were deep craters in the asphalt under all of the metal and debris. The docks were only about a hundred feet behind them, and one of the freighter ships pulled up had a shipping container sticking out of it like the world’s largest splinter.

Thor was standing atop the crumpled pile of containers, hammer in hand and a thunderous expression on his face. His eyes were locked on the Hulk, who wasn’t paying Thor any mind as he continued to tear apart the sorry remains of one of their robotic enemies.

As Iron Man hovered nearby, Thor turned his stormy gaze to Tony. “He must learn,” he said. “We are meant to trust one another, not—” Here he glared back down at their green teammate. “—throw them into nearby obstacles!”

Hulk snorted and threw a chunk of robot straight at Thor, who easily hit it away with Mjölnir. 

“You’re going about this all wrong,” Tony said, raising his hands in a placating manner. “Observe.”

“This oughta be good,” Clint murmured for only Natasha to hear.

They watched Tony hover lower and lower until he landed about fifteen feet from the Hulk. 

A moment later, Steve ran around a corner and swiftly took in the situation. “Stark—” he began warningly.

“Hey, big guy,” Tony called, his loudspeakers on perhaps a little louder than necessary. Natasha rolled her lips against a smile as Steve slumped in frustration.

Hulk twisted around with a feral snarl, his green eyes trained intently on the suit of metal nearby. His lips drew back and he growled low, wild. 

“Party’s over, Green Bean,” Tony went on, undaunted. He strolled a little closer, but stopped when Hulk’s giant green hand closed around the metal in his grip. The metal screeched and groaned under the powerful might of that giant fist. 

Tony put his hands up calmly to show he was powerless. The repulsors in his gauntlets powered down, adding another layer to the gesture. “All out of bad guys to fight,” he said. “I mean, we can probably go find some more somewhere in the world, but this fight is done. You got them all. So why don’t you just sit back, relax, let Banner take the wheel, and— _Jesus!”_

His boots flared to life as he rocketed out of the way of the dense ball of metal Hulk flung at him. 

“Nicely done, Mr. Stark,” Clint applauded over Hulk’s enraged roars, watching Iron Man land next to Thor atop the shipping containers. “That mention of Bruce _really_ got him to calm down.”

“Right,” Tony said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. “I know how much you like to just sit back and watch, _Hawkeye._ I’m sure you can do better.”

“As much as this might come as a surprise to you, I’m not that crazy,” Clint replied with an incredulous laugh. “You just riled him up again.”

Natasha glanced back at the battlefield when she saw blue movement. “Cap, you sure that’s a good idea?” she asked into her communication link, interrupting whatever Tony’s comeback was.

Steve strode across the debris, his jaw set and a look of determination on his face. “We need to get the clean-up crews here before the civilians start to return,” he said as he walked, “and they can’t come until it’s safe. The sun’s already starting to go down, which will hamper rescue efforts. I’m ending this now.”

With his shield still on his arm, Captain America came to a stop in front of the Hulk. He was thankfully out of grabbing range, but with how fast Hulk moved and how angry Hulk still was, he was still very much in danger. The giant snarled at him, teeth bared and his face the very picture of _pissed._

“Hulk,” Steve said in his most commanding voice, the one that never failed to get the big guy’s attention on the field of battle. Hulk growled at him again, his fingers twitching like they wanted to close into fists. Steve stood his ground and kept his eyes locked on their teammate. “Stand down.”

Hulk snorted and began pacing, though his eyes never left Steve. 

Even from where she was standing, Natasha saw Steve draw a breath and tighten his jaw. “There are no more hostiles to take out,” he went on firmly. “Stand _down.”_

Instead of following orders, Hulk let out a low, threatening growl. He crouched, and Natasha held her breath, waiting for him to pounce. Tony flew a bit closer, ready to pull the captain out of harm’s way.

But Hulk merely picked up another handful of broken and twisted metal. His massive fingers left gigantic dents in the metal as he twisted and bent it around, letting the groan of strained metal fill the silence.

Hulk was still growling and began pacing again, pausing every few moments to reach out and attack some other inanimate object, but he kept that metal in his hand.

Natasha watched his fingers move, how his thumb seemed to continually scrape over a jagged edge of the metal. The threatening _shink_ of skin over the sharp edge of metal was barely heard over the Hulk’s growls and occasional grunt, but in the lapses of noise, that _shink_ filled the void.

She kept watching his hand, and as she watched, she noticed that his grunts were in time with the sparking of nearby broken robotics. There was something familiar about the way he was touching the metal.

Up above them, Tony began talking again. “Aw, let’s just let him tire himself out. Like a big green overgrown toddler.”

“Scariest toddler I’ve ever seen,” Clint murmured. Still, he opened the communication line back up. “Cap, he’s right. He’s not calming down.”

Steve didn’t look away from his quarry. “I’m not backing down,” he said. “This needs to end.”

“It does,” Clint agreed, “but you standing there probably isn’t helping, and—Nat, what are you doing?”

Natasha didn’t look back as she walked forward, but she could perfectly picture the expression on his face: the one when he questioned her sanity. She didn’t bother answering his question. From the corner of her eye, she saw Tony hover a little closer. 

Steve’s eyes met hers for a moment as she came closer, and though they were wide in questioning panic, they immediately calmed when he actually looked at her. 

With a good deal of distance between them, Natasha came to a stop atop a crumbled shipping container. Hulk had stopped fiddling with the metal and had instead crushed it in his fist, and his green-eyed glare was on her, and lord, it was _terrifying._

And _exhilarating._

Natasha almost felt her breath catch under the weight of that glare, but she drew a careful breath and eyed him. “Hey big guy,” she greeted, and Hulk growled in response. 

From the corner of her eye, she saw Tony and Steve lurch like they wanted to rush over, but they both froze when Hulk’s head twisted to them with a sharp snarl.

“Shh, shh,” she shushed calmly, lifting her hand though her heart was racing. “Calm down,” she said soothingly as Hulk turned his glare back to her. “Just calm down.” Her arm remained up, her palm facing their brutish sixth teammate. “The fight’s over, big guy. The fight’s over, the sun’s getting real low, and other people have a job to do. But you? You’ve done your job.” 

The anger in his gaze had shifted into wariness, but he was watching her.

Or, he was watching her raised hand. 

Natasha kept her eyes locked on him, even as he took a cautious step forward. He paused after that first step and huffed, drawing back a little like a skittish animal. She felt a tiny, breathless smile begin to tug at her lips and she kept her arm raised, and he took another small step closer, and—

There was a sharp spark nearby, and Hulk whipped around and roared. His fist shot through the sparking remains of the robot and a good foot deep into the asphalt below. 

“Nat, get out of—” Clint’s hurried voice came through the comm link.

“Hulk!” Natasha called over the roar, and the green behemoth twisted to her with another savage noise. She felt her breath actually catch this time, but her outstretched hand remained steady. “Shh, calm down,” she murmured gently, but another spark set him off again.

“This isn’t working,” Steve said quietly. “Natasha, get—”

“Shh,” Natasha shushed again. They needed something to distract him from the sparks coming off of the damaged robotics. An idea popped into her head, and in the face of the raging giant in front of her, she began to sing very softly. “Баю-баюшки-баю, Не ложися на краю.”

The lullaby floated through the air, the chilling melody causing Hulk to pause and look at her. She _really_ hoped he didn’t understand what she was saying, but she couldn’t think of another lullaby aside from this one. She remembered how terrifying it had been to hear it way back then, when she was a small girl in the Red Room.

“Придет серенький волчок,” she sang on slowly, gently, soothingly, “И ухватит за бочок.”

Hulk was staring at her now, his normally furious face now showing an expression of curiosity. She could feel the stares of her teammates on her, too, but she only had eyes for Hulk. 

She drew a breath and went on to the next verse of the lullaby. “Он ухватит за бочок И потащит во лесок. Под ракитовый кусток.” 

The words rolled smoothly off her tongue and into the air between them. She slowly moved into a crouch, keeping her hand up and steady as she went on. “К нам, волчок, не ходи.”

Hulk took a careful step forward again, eyeing her warily as he took a second step closer. He dropped the metal in his hand as he paused. Natasha smiled slightly in encouragement as she continued to sing. “Нашу Машу не буди...” 

She drew a breath and began again as Hulk came to a stop in front of her. “Баю-баюшки-баю...” she sang softly, the melody trailing off as he watched her. She met his eyes and watched in amazement as the green of his eyes flickered. 

Movement brought her eyes away from Hulk’s face and to his hand. His massive fist uncurled and paused in mid-air, hesitating as he eyed her hand. He mirrored her hand position and carefully— _so_ carefully—let it inch forward until she could feel the heat coming off his skin. 

Any thoughts of continuing the lullaby were put on hold as she slowly let her hand close that last little bit of space between their outstretched palms. The skin beneath hers was rough and thick, so terribly strong but also remarkably gentle. 

Another little smile touched her lips and she carefully turned her hand. Hulk continued to mirror her movements, watching her hand carefully as she cradled his massive hand in hers. Her palm fit perfectly over one of his enormous knuckles, and she let her hand settle there for a long moment as she glanced back up to his face.

Hulk was looking down at their hands, but gone was his anger. She stared at his expression of peaceful curiosity, and when his eyes met hers, the green in his irises faded until they were this hazel-like color. 

Without tearing her eyes from his, Natasha carefully let her fingers lightly trail over the skin of his hand until she was lightly touching his palm. Her fingers moved gently along the length of his index finger, and when he glanced away from her eyes to instead watch the movements of her hand, she let her touch grow a little firmer, a little more grounding. 

There was another spark, but Hulk didn’t jerk. His eyes returned to hers, now more brown than anything, as she let her fingers trail back down his finger and across his palm, making their way toward his wrist. As she began to pull her hand across his palm again, letting her fingers linger over the deep lifelines in his palm, she let her touch become just a hint more firm.

A long, slow exhale escaped from Hulk’s chest, this low rumbling sound coming from deep within him. His eyes were back to the same deep brown she was still growing familiar with and his eyelids were beginning to droop fractionally.

She let her hand travel up one of his fingers again, and she made the touch firmer as she pulled her hand over his fingertip and off his hand.

They remained like that for a long moment, Hulk’s hand still held between them like he was beckoning her to continue and Natasha crouched in front of that outstretched hand.

The moment passed, however, when Hulk took a stumbling step back. A low growl, sounding less threatening and more questioning, came from him as he staggered away from her. 

Natasha stayed where she was and watched avidly as the powerful muscles that made up his massive chest and back began to shrink away. The green started to fade away, and Hulk crumbled to his knees as the transformation continued. His hands came together, one cradling the other.

By the time it was over, Bruce was left in the wreckage, his hands still cradled together like he could still feel the ghosts of Natasha’s fingertips against his skin. Natasha stared, unable to do anything else, as he shivered and finally passed out.

No one moved for a lingering minute, all of them too stunned to do anything more than stare.

Of course, it was Tony to break the quiet. “Okay, that was the creepiest lullaby I’ve ever heard. I mean, what?”

==

Hours later, Natasha stepped into the kitchen and paused in the doorway. Slumped at the table was an exhausted looking Bruce Banner, his hands curled around a mug of tea and his eyes settled in a distant stare.

He only looked up when Natasha opened the fridge. He blinked, as if clearing away his thoughts, and his eyes settled on her. His gaze, though exhausted, was thoughtful. 

Natasha pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator and met his eyes, patient and waiting for him to collect his scattered thoughts. 

Sure enough, a few seconds later, Bruce let one of his fingers begin to trace along the ledge of his mug. “That, uh… What did you do?” he asked cautiously, but obviously curious. “To get him to calm down?”

Natasha leaned her hip against the kitchen island between them, but she didn’t look away. “I touched your hand.” 

It sounded ridiculous out loud, but Bruce didn’t laugh or crack a smile. His brow furrowed slightly.

Before he could voice his questions, Natasha set her bottled water down on the counter. “The big guy was fiddling with some metal a lot like how you fiddle with your glasses,” she explained. “I don’t know if he was conscious that he was doing it, but I know it’s a nervous tick of yours.” She smiled a little fondly. “I think he just needed something to focus on, something not rough and jagged. Something soothing and gentle.”

Bruce stared at her almost like she had grown a second head. Natasha evenly met his stare, ready to defend her actions against his onslaught of _that was dangerous_ comments. 

Instead, he slowly uncurled his hand away from his cup and stared down at his palm. Natasha watched him sluggishly let his other hand come away from his mug and lightly trace some of the same patterns across his hand that she had done earlier in the day on a much bigger and greener hand. 

Then his brow furrowed again and he glanced back at her. “You sang, too,” he said, as if remembering for the first time.

At that, Natasha smiled faintly. “The sparks were riling him up. He needed something else to focus on.”

“That…” Bruce looked off, like he was trying to find the echoes of the lullaby in the air. “That was a really scary sounding song.”

Natasha smiled a little wider and felt a small bubble of laughter settle in her chest. “I’ll learn some nicer lullabies,” she promised. “That one is a bit…”

“Off-putting?” Bruce suggested.

“I was going to go with creepy,” Natasha admitted, and Bruce’s soft huff of laughter made her smile again. 

==

“Great job, everyone,” Steve said over the communication link as the dust began to settle over the battlefield.

It was a few weeks later. They were still making their way through the list of potential areas that could be housing Loki’s scepter, but with each raid, they didn’t come any closer to actually finding it. They still had several other leads to investigate, and in the meantime, they got to shut down some really questionable places.

Clint’s voice came through the link. “Looks like Hulk decided to stick around this time,” he said.

“Alright!” Tony cheered. “Two in a row. That’s got to be a record.”

“Nat,” Steve began, “do you have another lullaby will bring back Banner?”

“Dear god,” Clint began, and she could practically hear the shudder in his voice, “please tell me you’re not gonna sing that terror Russian lullaby again.”

“Oh, oh!” Tony said as he zipped by. “How about _The Itsy, Bitsy Spider_? That’ll cheer him up.”

Natasha rolled her eyes, but jogged off when Clint gave her the coordinates of Hulk’s location. It seemed like these lullabies were going to become a normal part of their battle routines. 

She found herself looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> So [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMmj5WgB8c) is the lullaby Natasha sings to the Hulk. It's _terrifying_.
> 
> Edit: So it's been brought to my attention that the original lullaby used in this fic was actually from a horror movie. This is what happens when I vomit out fic without doing proper research. However, the user who pointed this out to me also pointed me to a different lullaby, which has been entered in place of the original Russian lyrics. You can hear it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f8WYvAo-RA). Still creepy, but not deathly terrifying.


End file.
